Our hardworking and talented volunteers from IBM Design have put the finishing touches on our brand new Future of Design Education website.
The old website was appropriate for the initial launch of the initiative, outlining our objectives, and getting people to express their interest in being part of it. All information collected on that site including the answers to the questions on the Register Your Interest form have been stored and are being used and will continue to be used by our workgroups.
The new website has a fresh visual identity as well as a structure and accompanying content appropriate for the ongoing work of the Future of Design Education initiative. The home page communicates our goal of rethinking design education, why it is necessary, what the stages of the initiative are and what stage we’re at, and the call for essays. The site also provides an overview (under About) and further specifics (under Work) that guides further development of principles, themes, student characteristics, and pedagogy. Users can find information about the people involved in the initiative, updated as work progresses. The site will provide other updates, including a Blog, publications, and essays from our contributors. Instructions for submitting an essay follow in this newsletter and can also be found on the website under Resources. Readers who prefer to follow us only through the newsletter can subscribe on the Stay Informed page, located under the Updates section.
We’d like to thank the IBM volunteer team for their great work on the new website!
The co-leaders for the first seven workgroups are onboard (each group has at least one leader from academia and one from practice). These first workgroups are working on the themes of foresighting, disparate cultures and world viewpoints, statement of ethics, systems, non-degree-granting education, design methods, and academic research training.
The group leaders are writing Preamble documents describing their approach to the curricular theme, its scope, and their method of selecting workgroup members. The leaders are reviewing each other’s documents to identify conflicts or overlaps. The revised Preamble documents will then guide the selection of members and the work of each workgroup.
We seek essays that expand upon the ideas required for teaching, pedagogy, and curriculum (courses). We want to tap your wisdom through short essays on topics relevant to this initiative. Selected essays will be published on the Future of Design Education website.
We are forming a small editorial team to read and advise authors on essays. Although these are not peer-reviewed journal articles, we will follow a reduced set of journal editing principles. The editorial team will review all submissions. Some essays may be returned with suggestions for improvement.
What format should you follow? Use any of the standard forms for publications. Some of us prefer the Style Manual of the American Psychological Association (which is used by many different scientific disciplines). Others favor the “Chicago Manual of Style.”
Write in an engaging style: use first-person writing, active rather than passive voice.
How long is short? Between 2 and 10 pages (including figures but not including references).
Ready to Submit? Click HERE to submit an essay
Authors will own and control all uses of their articles: they are free to post them or reuse the content. Authors will be asked to give the Initiative permission to post and reuse these essays for the purposes of the initiative. Any use of the essays will always give full credit and names of the authors. Traditional academic journals do not like to publish articles that have already been published or that are widely available, but these short essays should not interfere with the future publication of expanded works.